WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Charles Schumer said on Friday that the United States should use a bid by China's state-run CNOOC for Canadian oil company Nexen Inc as a chance to take China to task for long-standing trade and investment issues.

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In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Schumer suggested the United States should withhold its blessing for the deal unless China addresses complex disputes over government procurement, foreign investment reviews and intellectual property rights.

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The Canadian government will review the bid, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said there should be no assumptions about whether it will receive approval.

But Schumer's request to intervene in a deal involving a Canadian company caught many off-guard.

"Decisions about the Canadian economy, about our relationship - our economic relationship with China - will be made in Ottawa and not in Washington or New York," Baird told reporters in Ottawa.

The Obama administration gets to weigh in on the U.S. portion of the deal because Nexen has about 10 percent of its assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. law requires a formal national security review when a foreign company buys energy and other sensitive assets.

I'm guessing that this US law obligates the government to take measures against a company's assets within the US, if the company fails the security review. Essentially, the US would be saying to CNOOC "Buy NEXEN if you want, but if you do, expect us to treat you like crap on this side of the border". Which I suppose they have the right to do.

It'll be interesting to see how Harper plays this. He's been infusing his energy rhetoric with a bit of nationalistic and anti-American overtones lately, accusing American-funded environmentalists of being agents of foreign-influence.

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After President Obama refused to grant a permit for Keystone XL in January, Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, indicated that he would never again be “held hostage” to United States politics, saying that some Americans saw his country as “one giant national park.” He said Canada would redirect oil that had been destined for Gulf Coast refineries to other countries, particularly China.

That's just a sample of what the normally pro-American Harper and his media flacks have been dishing out on this front. Perhaps not coincidentally, Harper is also in the middle or promoting War Of 1812 bicentennial celebrations.

Still, as I say, just as America has no legal jurisdiction over what China and Canada do, China and Canada have no jurisdiction over how Americans treat their companies operating in the US.

accusing American-funded environmentalists of being agents of foreign-influence.

That's kind of an odd formulation. Aren't environmentalists, by definition, not agents of 'foreign influence' but agents of 'earthly', 'worldly', 'international' (some word with an 'l' near the end) influence?

accusing American-funded environmentalists of being agents of foreign-influence.

That's kind of an odd formulation. Aren't environmentalists, by definition, not agents of 'foreign influence' but agents of 'earthly', 'worldly', 'international' (some word with an 'l' near the end) influence?

Well, when you're getting money from the Rockefellers, you're definitely an agent of some sort of "green" influence.

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Until the spring of 2010, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Inc. (RBF) reported at its website that it granted $50,000 to Tides Canada to develop a website about “Oil Sands Tourism.” RBF Inc. has confirmed by email that the website that Tides Canada developed with RBF funds is found at www.travelingalberta.com. This website makes a mockery of Alberta tourism. Originally, RBF reported that its grant to Tides Canada was “to increase pressure on Alberta policymakers…. ” After I started asking questions about RBF’s grants, RBF, like Wilburforce, removed a substantial portion of the detailed descriptions of its grants. Its website no longer says that RBF funded Tides Canada to pressure the Alberta government.

Of course, Harper and the oil patch have the Koch brothers in their corner, so all this right-wing concern about Yankee influence is a little hard to swallow.

It's been kind of a funny debate overall. You've got the pro-American Harper jumping into bed with the Chinese Communists, all the while complaining about US bullying and interference, the classic rallying cry of the nationalist left. Meanwhile, on the left itself, you've got people who would normally be the ones holding up "Yankee Go Home" signs pleading "Aw, what's the big deal?" when it is revealed that some of their funding comes from Silicon Valley billionaires and the Standard Oil clan.

Governments have never been averse to using their heroes for political purposes, manipulating the myth to suit present goals.

But Treasury Board President Tony Clement is going to need a chiropractor to deal with the contortions required to enlist legendary Canadian doctor and avowed communist Norman Bethune in the Conservative government's drive for closer trade ties with China.

Clement was on hand Wednesday to open a new $2.5-million interpretive centre at Bethune's birthplace in Gravenhurst, Ont., which is in his riding.

Bethune was vaguely canonized when the slightly-left Liberals were in power. But that was the sort of thing that the Conservatives' right-wing flank would always complain about in their tirades about the Libs being crypto-commies or something. Now I'm half-expecting Harper to show up at the interpretive center in a Mao jacket to greet the tourists.

Can you tell me why it is better to pump that oil sand crap half-way across wherever it is dug up all the way across the US down to Texas rather than just down to the Lake Superior and ship the refined stuff out the Great Lakes?

In the end, it all goes on the world market, so wouldn't it be better for us to let you guys ship it to Vancouver, sell it to the Chinese, refine it somewhere along the line while endangering either your or the Chinese environment and spare the Ogalalla Aquifer and the entire Wheat Belt of the US (the part not devastated by global warming)?

In the end, it all goes on the world market, so wouldn't it be better for us to let you guys ship it to Vancouver, sell it to the Chinese, refine it somewhere along the line while endangering either your or the Chinese environment and spare the Ogalalla Aquifer and the entire Wheat Belt of the US (the part not devastated by global warming)?

As a matter of fact, that very plan(more or less, I don't know all the details) is being proposed by an oil company called Enbridge, with the strong support of my home government of Alberta.

Problem is, almost nobody in BC supports this idea, for the reasons you imply in your comments. It has led to a somewhat unusual spat between Alberta and BC, with the BC premier now demanding that the Alberta government cut them in for whatever profits result from the pipeline. Alberta has responded that BC should take this up with Enbridge, not Alberta.

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Can you tell me why it is better to pump that oil sand crap half-way across wherever it is dug up all the way across the US down to Texas rather than just down to the Lake Superior and ship the refined stuff out the Great Lakes?

Not sure if anyone is talking about exporting via the Great Lakes, though. I don't know who the market would be for oil shipped from that location. Then again, the Keystone pipeline to Texas is supposed to be for export out of North America, but I don't know who's supposed to buy that either.

More knavish tricks from the Yanks against our home and native land...

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to freeze the assets of several Chinese-based investors alleged to have illegally profited from the $15-billion takeover of Calgary-based oil company Nexen.

The regulator says Hong Kong-based Well Advantage Ltd. and other unnamed trading firms were stockpiling shares of Nexen in the days leading up to the July 23 announcement of a $15.1-billion takeover offer from state-owned oil firm China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC).

State owned firms should not be permitted to purchase privately owned firms in other nations. The term is 'cross border nationalization". Canadians would go batty if Harper nationalized Nexen but nobody seems to care that the Chinese are going to nationalize it.

Canadians would go batty if Harper nationalized Nexen but nobody seems to care that the Chinese are going to nationalize it.

Well, in the case of a Canadian nationalization, a good share of the objection would be people thinking that a crown corporation is gonna cost the taxpayers' money. With a foreign firm, that particular red cape is removed from the bullring.

The federal government has approved two major energy takeover deals, green-lighting a $15.1-billion bid for Nexen Inc. by a Chinese state oil company and a $5.2-billion bid by Malaysia's Petronas for Progress Energy.

Look for this deal to be opposed by a motley coalition of left-wing Canadian nationalists, and old-school anti-Communist types. If sentiment against the deal spreads outside of these small factions and into the Tim Hortons, it could be trouble for the Conservatives.

My guess is that by the next election, the deal will be largely forgotten by John Q. Donutshop, and the Cold-War nostalgists will eventually realize they have no one to vote for but Harper. The left-wing nationalist critique will, as usual, be ignored by almost everyone.

My guess is that by the next election, the deal will be largely forgotten by John Q. Donutshop, and the Cold-War nostalgists will eventually realize they have no one to vote for but Harper. The left-wing nationalist critique will, as usual, be ignored by almost everyone.